


Love and Trust and Happiness

by Spannah339



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, New Dream, Song: I See the Light (Disney), i got emo about eugene's childhood, idk how to tag this one man, reflective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26414728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spannah339/pseuds/Spannah339
Summary: When he was young, Eugene Fitzherbert had dreams.~~AKA: Wren loops Everything I Ever Thought I Knew and gets emo.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Lance Strongbow, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 14
Kudos: 44





	Love and Trust and Happiness

When he was young, Eugene Fitzherbert had dreams. Great, powerful dreams - dreams of adventure and excitement, of defeating the villains and saving the day, of riches and treasure and never wanting again. 

Smaller dreams, dreams he kept closer to his heart and never told anyone, not even Arnwaldo. Dreams of family. Of his parents, coming back for him, parading down the street and swooping him up, taking him home,  _ loving him _ . (When he was young, he knew they would come back - they still loved him. They hadn’t just abandoned him.) 

Life has a habit of crushing dreams. Of making them smaller. 

He dreamed of being adopted, of finding a great lord or earl or king who would take him in (and Arnwaldo, of course) and raise him surrounded by riches and love and never wanting for anything. 

He dreamed of a kind family, needing a son, needing a new member of their family, arriving at the orphanage, taking him home. 

Surely there was someone for him. 

Surely he could be loved. 

He was around eight years old when he decided dreams were pointless. One of the older boys at the orphanage laughed scornfully at him as he waited with excitement for the visiting parents who might adopt someone. 

“Really,  _ Eugene _ ,” (and he hated it when they said his name like  _ that _ . It was bad enough to begin with. It wasn’t even  _ his _ name - just the name the orphanage had given him. His parents had given him a much better one he  _ knew _ ). “You’re too old now - you’re not going to get adopted - they only want the cute ones. So stop trying.” 

Eugene had naturally punched him, and that started a fight, and Arnwaldo came to help him and then the older boy’s friends joined in and Eugene wasn’t allowed dinner for a week afterwards, but he didn't regret it. 

The boy was right though, and Eugene knew it. No one had adopted him when he was young and loveable, so why would anyone want him now that he was getting older? It was silly to hope for something to arrive, to hope for a dream to fall into his lap. 

Dreams don’t come true - not for people like Eugene Fitzherbert. The world doesn’t give you anything - you have to fight for it. Fight for your place in the world, fight to prove your worth, if you even have any. 

And Eugene Fitzherbert didn’t have a place in the world - that much was clear. No one was ever going to love him. He wasn’t likeable, wasn’t cute, wasn’t  _ loveable. _ Eugene Fitzherbert was a small, scared, weak orphan who no one wanted - not even his parents. 

He had taught himself to read, when he was very young. It was an escape, a way of leaving behind Eugene Fitzherbert and the reminder that no one wanted him. He wanted  _ more _ \- wanted excitement and thrill and adventure and to get away from the fact that he was never going to be loved. 

So he became Flynn Rider - because Flynn Rider was lovable. Flynn Rider was exciting, adventurous, heroic, everything Eugene Fitzherbert wasn’t. Flynn Rider hadn’t been abandoned - he had left to find his own way. Flynn Rider hadn’t been thrown aside - he didn’t  _ need _ family. 

Leaving behind the orphanage was the easiest thing he had ever done. Eugene Fitzherbert and Arnwaldo Schnitz slipped away one evening, vanishing into the night and never returning. 

Flynn Rider and Lance Strongbow emerged, and they weren’t tied back by silly things like needing to be loved. They were tough, strong, able to look after themselves. They could sneak and steal and survive on their own. 

Who needed family? 

Who needed security? 

Out here, away from the strict routines of the orphanage, away from the adults trying to make them better, there was only one rule - every man for himself. Flynn knew it, Lance knew it and they both knew - they knew that this was the only way to survive. 

You survived by fending for yourself, by betraying and stealing from everyone. Anything to get the next meal on the table, to sleep somewhere warm once in a while. 

(Sometimes, like when he and Lance stayed up super late watching the stars and talking, or when they saw the Coronan lanterns rise for the first time, Flynn wondered if life could have been different once. If they could have been a family like what he longed for as a child. 

But life doesn’t work like that and those moments of weakness only lasted a short while. To survive you couldn’t love. You couldn’t trust.) 

He could have, he realized, a little too late. He could have trusted, could have become a small family with Lance, the closet thing he had ever had to a brother. But to survive you can’t have family, not someone like him. 

The law caught up to them, as it inevitably would. A job gone wrong, one moment that changed everything. 

One moment it was the two of them, Flynn and Lance against the world, they had been by each other’s side forever. The next, Lance was pinned between two guards and Flynn had a choice to make. 

Every man for himself - that was the motto. That was the code. 

Lance knew that. 

“Eugene!” his friend - his  _ brother _ \- called after him as he left, as he ran, as he escaped, the shout burning into Flynn’s heart. 

Flynn was just doing what they had always done. Looking out for himself, because no one else was going to. 

But now he was  _ alone _ . 

Flynn Rider never saw Lance again. 

He had taken it for granted really. Lance had always been at his side, had always been there beside him, to help him, to support him. But Flynn had run and he had escaped and Lance had not and now he was alone. 

It was inevitable, he knew. Nothing lasted - nothing good, anyway. And now he was completely and utterly alone, and even if Lance got out of prison he would  _ still _ be alone, because he had left Lance behind and why would Lance still want to be friends after that? 

He didn’t mind - Flynn Rider didn’t need friends, didn’t need family. Flynn Rider was a loner, a rogue, a charismatic thief who did what he wanted and went where he wanted and let no one stop him. 

He had long ago stopped being held back by regret. By hoping. He knew what life was like and it was cold, dark and lonely. He had to find his own excitement, had to drown out the quiet voice that whispered about how he had let down Lance, had let down his parents and made them abandon him, had let down  _ himself _ . 

“So, boy,” one of the market stall owners said, leaning over her wares as Flynn distracted her long enough for one of his companions to sneak behind her and steal one of her money bags. “How about you?” 

“What about me, madam,” Flynn said, flashing her his most handsome smile. 

“Are you happy?” 

It was abrupt, short, and took him by surprise. 

“How could I not be, when I am talking to such an exquisite woman,” he said before even having a chance to think about the question. She snorted and turned just in time to catch the thief and then everyone had to run. 

But the question stuck with him and no matter how much he dismissed it, said of course he was happy, said happiness was overrated, it didn’t leave him. 

He chased the thrill, chased the next job, chased the next valuable trinket. 

The Lost Princess of Corona’s Crown was the holy grail of thieves targets. Corona was a tough Kingdom to be a thief in to begin with, and the king and queen’s slight obsession over their twenty-years-dead daughter meant the crown was heavily guarded. 

If Flynn stole the Crown, he would be famous. He would be cheered on in thief’s circles, he would never be forgotten, he would be  _ someone _ and maybe people would care.

It was almost too easy. 

Good thing too. 

When you grow up in the dark places of the world, it’s hard to imagine light. Sometimes you see it - but always when other people have it. The families walking through the streets, laughing and loving. Those who don’t want for anything, not food, not wealth, not trust. 

Flynn had seen light, had seen hope, had seen love, but he had never really felt it. It wasn’t for him, he wasn’t good enough for it. He belonged to the shadows, to the dark places, the dim alleys and moonless nights. He couldn’t ever reach the light. 

He just hadn’t expected the light to reach him. 

Rapunzel was different. At first, he just wanted to get rid of her so he could take his crown and take his fame. But she was different, a warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time - ever. A light that broke into the darkness he had grown up in. Naive and clueless about the world, maybe - but she was  _ good _ . 

And she made other people good. She reached, she called on others, she inspired them to do better, to  _ be _ better. She shone into the dark and forgotten and hated places of the world and reminded them what it was like to  _ hope _ . Flynn found himself remembering those long-abandoned dreams, the dreams of love and happiness and a family. And here she was, her light undimmed by the world, her love unending. 

She made him remember who he had been in those early years, before the world had fully crushed his dreams. She made him remember Eugene Fitzherbert. 

He hadn’t ever told anyone his name, his real name. He hadn’t  _ wanted _ to be Eugene until he was trapped, trapped beside this young woman he had met only earlier in the day. But suddenly, he needed someone to know. He needed someone to know that he hadn’t always been Flynn Rider, that once he had just been a useless, pathetic orphan with nothing, with no one. He needed to know if this stunning girl would accept  _ Eugene _ when no one else had. 

At least if she shunned him like everyone else they would be dead soon. 

“I like Eugene,” she said and it was enough to shatter his world. 

No one liked Eugene. Eugene was nobody, was nothing. Eugene was just an orphan, one of so many who no one wanted. Eugene was weak, and scared, and a coward. No one liked Eugene. 

Eugene had been abandoned by his parents, had abandoned his best friend, had no one and nothing and  _ no one liked Eugene _ . 

“Well, then you’d be the first,” he said softly. 

And maybe if she liked Eugene, he could as well. 

And when he saw her, her hair pulled back from her shining face, her eyes reflecting the glow of the lanterns as she leaned over the water, as the water lapped against the boat and the soft murmurs and laughs from across the water mingled with the sharp scent of the sea and the sweetness of the flowers in her hair, as he felt the softness of her hand in his, he felt like he had never truly  _ seen _ anything before. 

The years of running, of thieving, of waiting for life to give him something more felt distant, fake, blurry. All the jewels and riches in the world couldn’t compare to the woman in front of him. 

For the first time in a long time, he felt a wish ignite - a hope, a want, a  _ dream _ . He wanted to stay, to stay with her, to see her smile every day. To make her smile, to _ love her _ . 

Because maybe Eugene couldn’t be loved, maybe he wasn’t worth that. 

But he could  _ love _ . 

**Author's Note:**

> I need to write something properly exploring Eugene and Lance's friendship cos I love them and I've been too focused on Team Awesome lately.


End file.
